Objects such as aircraft, small sail and motor boats, vehicles and particularly, trailer and motor homes, due to their light construction, large surface area and relatively low mass, are highly susceptible to damage and destruction from gale-force winds. Notably, gale-force winds have commonly been known to overturn such objects, or worse yet, lift and/or blow them a distance, resulting in severe damage and sometimes complete destruction of the object.
Aircraft are typically anchored to the ground by lines, straps, chains and the like to specific parts associated with the wheels or struts of the aircraft.
Objects such as small watercraft, power and sail boats, typically, rest on cradles or blocks formed of wood or steel when stored on land or are merely restrained by lines secured to an adjacent dockside or buoy when afloat. No other restraining means to prevent the boat from being hurled inland in the event of gale-force winds are employed.
Buildings, including residential homes and commercial and retail properties which typically rest on the ground by means of concrete footings and the like are often damaged by gale-force winds. In particular, roofs of buildings may be blown away. Further, the above objects are often damaged by flying debris created by the gale-force winds. Yet further, glasshouses for example, commercial greenhouses, are very susceptible to damage from windborne debris.
Vehicles are also often flung into the air and damaged by such winds.
Although netting has been used to embrace objects such as vehicles and aircraft, particularly as a means of carrying camouflage material, such netting has not been provided over the object as a secure retaining means sufficient to withstand gale-force winds and/or impact from flying debris.
Numerous prior art apparatus exist for securing mobile or trailer homes to the ground in the event of hurricane, flood, or gale-force winds. The majority of these prior art apparatus use a combination or anchor means, elongate strap members and tightening turnbuckles, whereby such strap members are placed over and encircle a mobile home and are affixed to anchor means via turnbuckles to anchor the mobile home to the ground.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,148,162, 4,070,802, 3,054,151, 3,335,531, 3,644,192, 3,747,288, 3,848,367 and 3,937,437 are all examples of such apparatus which secure a mobile home to the ground via elongate strap members placed over and encircling the mobile home.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,054,151 and 4,070,802 each disclose "elongate metallic web-like hold-down straps 12 and 14" (U.S. Pat. No. '802) or "lashings 15" which bridge the roof of the mobile home and are secured at their ends to anchors.
Indeed, in some states within the United States of America where the incidence of hurricanes is high, such as in the State of Florida, State legislation requires that mobile homes be anchored to the ground in a stipulated manner requiring utilization of one or more of the above prior art apparatus and methods for securing mobile homes to the ground.
The above prior art apparatus, however, are often unsuccessful in preventing damage to mobile homes and small boats due to gale-force winds, since they completely fail to protect these objects from another source of damage, namely, damage due to impact with airborne debris, such as uprooted trees, bricks, flotsam, and the like which may impact the object at high velocity during a hurricane. For example, despite the utilization of such prior art apparatus, such prior art apparatus was unable to prevent the extensive damage and destruction to mobile homes which occurred in the state of Florida due to Hurricane Andrew in August of 1992. During this hurricane, trailer homes, despite being secured to the ground by prior art apparatus, suffered mass destruction due to being impacted by airborne projectiles such as trees, bricks, debris and the like, which so damaged trailer homes that the elongate strap members were completely ineffective in providing containment of the damaged trailer home. This often, and generally without exception, resulted in the damaged trailer home and its contents being completely blown away.
Accordingly, prior art apparatus do nothing to shield a mobile home from bombardment by airborne debris which frequently impacts a trailer home with such force so as to cause the break-up and disintegration of the mobile home. This is extremely undesirable, not only because of the destruction of the subject mobile home, but also because the resultant debris from the destroyed mobile home, including the mobile home's contents such as TV's, appliances, and the like, further add to the airborne debris circulating in a hurricane and in turn become airborne and impact and bombard other mobile homes, causing further resultant damage and destruction. Accordingly, the elongate strap members utilized with the apparatus of the aforementioned patents not only do nothing to shield a trailer home from airborne bombardment, but they further do nothing to prevent debris from damaged trailer homes and their contents from becoming airborne in a hurricane and causing further damage and destruction, both to human life and other property.
Use of canvas or nylon tarps or tarpaulins to protect property from wind and rain is also generally known. However, use of canvas tarps or tarpaulins, for the purpose of protecting mobile homes from damage from airborne debris in a hurricane, even if employed in the novel and inventive manner disclosed herein, would highly be unsuitable and indeed unworkable. In particular, to resist large volumes of wind, any canvas or nylon tarpaulins need to be of such thickness that their weight makes them extremely difficult to work with in placing over a trailer home, not to mention the increased expense in the number and size of ground anchor means necessary to retain the tarpaulin in high winds. In addition, once becoming rain-soaked, tarpaulins tend to sag, thereby trapping water and placing additional weight on the trailer, which, if such water were allowed to accumulate, may result in structural damage to the trailer home.
Accordingly, there exists a real need for a novel apparatus and method to shield and anchor property such as aircraft, boats, buildings and particularly, mobile homes from destruction in gale-force winds. In addition, there exists a further real need to contain resultant debris from any of such property which may be destroyed due to impact from airborne debris to prevent such debris from itself becoming airborne and causing further destruction.